Driving at Night: The Effects of Various Colored Windshield Tints on Visual Acuity, Glare Discomfort, and Color Perception

Abstract

The Philippine Government has yet to create a law standardizing tints in automobiles. Although many cities have different ordinances regulating the use of tints, a nationwide law has not yet been passed. Moreover, local government units have no supporting studies to justify their prohibition on the use of heavy tint films, and colored windshields. Thus, this study aims to determine the effects of various colored tints for windshields in terms of visual acuity, glare discomfort, and color perception at night. In order to simulate the different colored windshield tints, a cellophane of different colors (red, blue, green, and yellow) is attached to a viewing contraption. At a specified distance, the participants were asked to undergo a series of tests: (1) to gather data on visual acuity, the researchers made use of the Snellen chart; (2) to extract data on glare discomfort, a revised De Boer scale was used to rate the discomfort level of the HID light source; and (3) to assess color perception, participants were asked to evaluate colored targets using a viewing contraption. The data gathered was analyzed through the use of various statistical analyses such as the normality test, the Friedman test and the Wilcoxon Signed Rank Test. The results showed that the yellow tint is best used to enhance the sharpness of vision. Furthermore, yellow tint is among the best to use, alongside blue tint, in detecting primary colors. It is also discovered that the red, green, and blue colored tints best reduce the harmful effect of glare when applied to a high beam light source from an HID light. Lastly, the different colored tints do not differ in terms of glare discomfort when a low beam HID light source is used.